DHS goes on the air with NOAA

By Wilson P. Dizard III

Jun 25, 2004

NOAA Weather Radio

Mike Fisher/KRT

The Homeland Security Department and the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have signed an agreement under which DHS will send all-hazards alerts directly through NOAA's radio network.

NOAA's All-Hazards Network, which started as NOAA Weather Radio, now will be able to deliver homeland security information to national, regional or local radio audiences, DHS said.

The network will continue to carry messages from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Alert System, which also uses broadcast television screen crawls and messages via interruptions in local radio broadcasts.

The NOAA system reaches more than 97 percent of the country's territory around the clock.The all-hazards system already carries news about extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanoes, chemical spills, biohazard events and, in some states, Amber Alerts about missing children, DHS said.